by Luke Furman
The mandatory fight between Adonis Stevenson and Eleider Alvarez is heading to a date in early 2017.
The fight appeared to be targeted for the fall of 2016, but there appears to be a change of plans.
Stevenson (28-1-0) has only seen action once this year, with his exciting stoppage win over puncher Thomas Williams Jr. back in July in Quebec City. Alvarez (20-0) was in the ring on the same show, winning a decision over late replacement Robbie Berridge. The doubleheader was viewed as a lead-up to the fall fight.
The deal between them appears to be easy to make, but for some reason the fight hasn't come together as of yet. They both share the same promoter in Yvon Michel of GYM, and the same manager/adviser in Al Haymon. Alvarez has been the mandatory challenger to the title since last November, when he won a twelve round majority decision over Isaac Chilemba.
To stay busy, Alvarez is now being positioned to headline the second edition of GYM's fight series scheduled for December 10 at the Montreal Casino.
"Eleider would take that fight because he wants to stay active in order to better prepare for a fight against Adonis Stevenson, somewhere in the early months of 2017," said promoter Yvon Michel, to RDS.
Stevenson has not made a mandatory defense of his belt since November of 2013, when he knocked out Tony Bellew. The large gap in time was due to the WBC's miscalculation of making Sergey Kovalev - a world champion of three rival sanctioning bodies, WBA/WBO/IBF - jump ahead of the top contenders secure a mandatory spot for Stevenson.
Instead of a deal being reached, months upon months were wasted with failed talks over money and television rights. When the WBC ordered a purse bid, Kovalev withdrew from the procedure and gave up his mandatory spot, which fell to Alvarez.
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.
